The Finale
by PopfullaArtist
Summary: COMMISSION: Retelling of Sonic Forces' final battle, where Sonic gives more than what he has... which could be costly.


"The Finale"

Written by: Toni the Mink

Commissioned by: Royal_Serene

Sonic and all related indica (c) SEGA

Opal the Cat & Flora the Chao (c) Royal_Serene

* * *

...

* * *

Sonic and Opal managed to land safely on their feet in the canyons, with Flora clinging tightly to Opal's shoulder. The tuxedo cat had tried earlier to leave her service chao behind, but she managed to find a way to follow her master, fearing for her safety and well-being. That was the kind of loyal chao she was. So Opal kept her close, promising to protect her with her life.

They all looked up to see Tails hovering in, carrying the smaller, younger looking chubby Sonic, and landing close by.

"We did it!" Sonic cheered, clenching his fist in victory, "Eggman's army is officially butt-kicked! We won!"

"It may not be completely over yet," Opal murmured, holding Flora closely in her arms.

Sonic glanced over questioningly, but before he could ask anything, the ground shuddered violently. Everyone waved their arms around to maintain balance. "Aw come on!" Sonic cried, "Now what? Can we ever just win and have that be the end of it?"

"Look!" Tails cried, pointing forward.

Sonic and Opal twisted around to see a massive arachnid-snake-like robot climbing out of a crevice in the ground, and hover over them in a threatening manner.

"Gotcha!" Emperor Robotnik's voice boomed from a speaker system on the robot, "The fortress reactor was just a decoy! A true winner keeps his trump card hidden until the end."

"Sonic, what's going on?!" Vector called through the Resistance members' communicators, "There're aren't less enemies, there're MORE!"

"What?!" Tails cried.

Opal inhaled sharply. More..? Seriously? And now this on top?

"How can there be so many?" Honey's voice rang through the intercom as well.

"Confirmed sightings include Shadow, Metal Sonic, Zavok, Chaos, Infinite… Thousands of them!"

Sonic grit his teeth. "What have you done?" he shouted to Robotnik.

"Mwahahahaha!" the emperor laughed, "I merely incorporated the Phantom Ruby into this Death Egg Robot."

"But… that means the Phantom Ruby no longer has a vulnerable energy supply!" said Tails, "It's… an _invulnerable_ ruby?"

"A good deduction, Tails," Eggman stroked at his mustache, "This Death Egg Robot has- No, _**I**_ have surpassed Infinite to become the complete and ultimate form! You will be crushed by this Death Egg Robot powered by the Phantom Ruby, and in the end, everything will still be just as I planned!"

He fell into bursts of maniacal laughter as the Death Egg Robot unleashed a red energy, surrounding everyone, and distorting reality. Opal clutched onto Flora tightly, and forced herself to take deep breaths. Now was not the time to start losing her nerve. The support chao buried her face into her chest, to help her owner relax.

"You're plan will end like all your plans do…"

Opal glanced up at Sonic's voice. He was stepping forward, confident as ever. Nothing seemed to be holding him back. Nothing ever did.

"… with you sitting in a pile of busted robot parts, wondering how you failed so badly!"

The smaller Sonic stepped up to his taller, older counterpart, fists clutched with determination. He too wasn't giving in to easily. Sonic glanced down at him, smirking, and then looked over to Opal with the same smile. "Let's get 'im!"

Sonic never showed any fear no matter what faced him. It was time Opal did the same. She passed Flora over to Tails' hands, nodded to her hedgehog partner, and the three took off to battle the Death Egg Robot.

* * *

Of course, battling the Death Egg Robot head on proved to be no picnic either. Rouge announced that no ordinary tool would be able to inflict any sort of damage. It was all up to them…

Fortunately, alternate-Sonic found a way to defeat its outer barrier. When the robot would throw rows of its own lethal cannon balls, he was able to knock them back by spinning into them, destroying the outer layer. Apparently the only thing strong enough to destroy it was its own self…

Once the outer barrier was destroyed, Opal stepped in. "Go on, rookie!" Vector cheered over the intercom, "I know you can do this!"

"Our fate is in your hands," Mighty followed up.

Opal twitched her nose. Gee, add more pressure, why don't you?

The cat was prepared with a Burst Wispon, and she shot it at the Death Egg Robot at every given chance. She almost lost her nerve, however, when the giant robot's fist came slamming near her, and she just barely dove out of the way, only to be caught in the shockwave.

She clenched her fist and took deep breaths, waiting for the feeling of shock to pass by. Poor Flora… she must be going crazy, knowing her master was in danger and she couldn't provide any support or comfort… Opal was on her own…

That meant it was time for her to get her head back into the game.

She look up, and gasped as the robot's metal palm came coming down on top on her. Running on pure auto-drive, she raised the Burst Wispon over her head and fired, full blast. The hand backed off, but she continued firing, not letting up…

Then, something happened… The robot seemed to have fallen backwards, defeated. Was this it? Did she just beat him?

Opal watched cautiously. The red center window was severely cracked, and everything inside appeared to be short-circuiting. A strange hum rang out, until finally, the robot appeared to shut down, and all its appendages went limp.

It looked dead…

*THUMP*

*THUMP*

The red center window was suddenly smashed out. Underneath was a strange, pulsing metal layer…

*CRASH*

A smaller, white robot burst through, after pounding through the layer. It looked like a smaller version of the Death Egg Robot, and it hovered in front of Opal. _What…. What is this?_ She wondered.

A strange, familiar noise rang out. Reality was distorting once more, and the source came from the robot. All around, the world appeared as if everyone had teleported into the galaxy. Opal was now standing on top of a strange, purple floor pattern that looked as if it could disappear at any given second,

"Where am I…?"

"Doesn't matter."

Opal whipped around. There stood the two Sonics, one the alternate, and the other the one she was all too familiar with. He grinned at her. "We're together. That's all that counts. And as long as we also work together, then we've already won this!"

Opal felt a newfound confidence rise inside her, and she turned to face the Death Egg Robot, far off in the distance, facing the three of them back.

"End this, Sonic!" Knuckles' called through the intercom, "Defeat him!"

"Go for it, Sonic!" Amy chimed.

Sonic took a firm hold of Opal and mini-Sonic's hands, and the three dashed off ahead, towards the robot.

It was much harder than any other previous battle Sonic had ever encountered. Because of the Phantom Ruby's powers, it was difficult for the heroes to reach the robot in any amount of time, no matter how fast they raced. It even proved difficult to simply evade attacks such as laser blasts from its many appendages and random items being thrown at them.

If only they were out in the real world. A puny robot this size would be defeated in an instant.

But Sonic was giving up. He kept at it. Even mini-Sonic had trouble trying to keep up, but he was giving it all as well. Because of this, Opal refused to back down as well.

But it would be a lie if it was said it wasn't taxing to them.

"We're going to run out of steam if we keep this up," Opal breathed heavily, "We've got to do more than just chase it down..!"

Sonic knitted his eyebrows. He was in agreement. "You're right," he replied, "Get your Wispon ready!"

Before she could ask what he had planned, Sonic was already off, shooting ahead at the robot. He was always fast, but these were speeds Opal had never seen him reach before. Once he was up close and personal to the Death Egg Robot, he went straight into a spin and slammed his body into the robotic casing, over and over, not letting up once. The robot was decreasing in speed, giving mini-Sonic and Opal the chance to catch up. Opal did as expected, blasting her Burst Wispon into the Death Egg Robot. It was decreasing more and more in speed, and the younger Sonic could attack it as well.

Suddenly, it rose into the air, looming dangerously over the three. The center area glowed brighter, as if ready to shoot a laser… a very large and most likely a killer laser.

They couldn't reach it..! Opal began losing her breath, and she fell back as the two Sonics ran on ahead.

But Sonic was quick to see this. He stepped back, grabbed her hand, and pulled her up to mini-Sonic, running alongside. "Don't give up now, Opal!" he assured, though nearly out of breath, "There's nothing the three of us can't handle. Victory is ours!"

Victory was far away in Opal's eyes… but she closed them and allowed Sonic to take control.

" _Triple Boost!"_

Holding onto both Opal and mini-Sonic, Sonic spun into another spin attack… one faster and harder than he ever accomplished. He shot off and slammed into the center of the Death Egg Robot, causing it's death-laser to invert its blast, and destroy itself, taking the Phantom Ruby AND the strange dimension out with it.

The explosion knocked the three backwards. They fell through the nothingness of the dimensional rift.

Opal didn't hear the roars of cheers and applause as they somehow fell back onto Mobius. She didn't see the strange illusions of former villains disappear. She wasn't a part of the celebration. All she remembered was the sickening thud of her striking the ground and losing consciousness.

Was she asleep? Was she dead? She could make out miles of darkness but lacked the capacity to look or even move around.

After what seemed like hours, she felt a pang of pain in her chest. It occurred to her she wasn't breathing. She needed air! She tried desperately to suck in oxygen, only for her chest to hurt even worse.

She then felt a small, warm being cuddle under her chin, followed by a familiar mew.

 _Flora?_

She tried everything she could to raise her arm to her chest, where the warm being was. Her hand could make out the familiar form of an Angel Chao. She tried to call out to her, but as she could feel her mouth move, no words could come out.

And then… she was being kissed.

 _Kissed?!_

Opal's eyes shot open. Right in her face, with his mouth on hers, was mini-Sonic. She bolted upright in shock, clutching her chest as she slowly but painfully began breathing once more.

Mini-Sonic was initially shocked, but gave a sheepish grin. Opal narrowed her eyes. "What was that all about?"

Mini-Sonic blinked, then gave a small blush, but quickly put his hands together and pressed down on the ground, mimicking what looked like chest compressions.

Opal eased up at this. "Ohh, I see," she smiled, "You were trying to give me CPR…"

Mini-Sonic nodded.

"In that case, sorry for freaking out…"

He shrugged and smiled, then waved it off.

Opal glanced around. The canyon was empty, save for the two of them, plus Opal. "Have you seen Sonic?" she asked, "I mean… the _other_ Sonic..?"

Mini-Sonic looked around as well, then glanced up and shrugged.

Opal sighed. Her anxiety was beginning to build, only she wasn't worried about herself. This time, she was far mar worried about her friend. Holding Flora closely, she climbed back to her feet, with mini-Sonic's assistance. "Come on," she said, "Let's go see if we can find him…"

As they searched around the canyons, Opal kept thinking back to the battle with the Death Egg Robot. During all those battles with Emperor Robotnik, this was by far the hardest one they ever encountered. It was a miracle that they got out alive, let alone won.

But it wouldn't have happened had Sonic not pushed himself beyond his limits.

Opal silently prayed that he just achieved new levels and that he didn't overexert himself…

Mini-Sonic suddenly grabbed her hand and began tugging. He pointed far off in the distance. Opal looked ahead, seeing some of the Resistance Members far off.

"Hey guys!" she called, waving over to them. She ran off towards them, nearly tripping, but mini-Sonic was able to hold her up. They reached the group, consisting of Mighty, Honey, Ray, and Cosmo.

"Opal! Little Sonic!" Honey cried, racing up and grabbing Opal, before she could fall over again, "Are you two all right?"

Mini-Sonic nodded uncertainly.

"You found us..!" Opal breathed, as she caught her breath, "Maybe you can help us look for Sonic…"

Honey lowered her eyes, and looked over at the rest. Mighty and Cosmo were bent over what looked like a body. Ray was between them, still standing, looking up at Opal with worry. "Actually…" he muttered, "We already found him…"

Opal blinked. Worry began to form in her gut. "You did..?" her eyes moved to the body that Mighty and Cosmo were over.

Cosmo looked up at Opal with just as much worry as Ray. "Opal, he doesn't look too good…"

Opal slowly stepped up to the body and peered over Mighty…

There was Sonic, lying motionless on the ground, as still as the dead.

" _Sonic!"_


End file.
